Monday, June 30, 2014

A Tom Badguy Review: Strider

So, the Steam Summer Sale has ended and
I still have lots of games to play. I praised Game Dev Tycoon in a
previous review, but I want to now look at the other side of the
spectrum. What game was not so good? This leads to Strider, developed
by Double Helix Games and published by Capcom. Now, I never played
any of the earlier Strider games. My only experience with Strider is
using him in the Marvel Vs. Capcom series. Also, I've been hunting
for a fair priced copy of Strider 2 on the PS1 so I could play the
previous Strider games(no luck so far). But when I saw this game on
sale on Steam, I really wanted it. Little did I know that I would be
whisped away to the land of mediocrity and continuous button mashing.
Lets take a look at Strider and find out why I think this game puts
me to sleep.

Ok, so, the game starts you off right
at the beginning of the stage. No intro, no nothing. I'm fine with
that. I go through, hacking and slashing enemies and what not, and
this goes on for about the first game hour. You learn how to control
Strider's movement, see what the buttons are, etc. Then you fight the
first boss and gain access to a new area when something weird
happens. There is a voice over an intercom talking to citizens of the
city...wait, I'm in a city? With like, actually innocent people just
walking around? That's kind of weird. And why did all of a sudden
some face art appear of some guy talking to the city? Is this
important? Is there an actual story in the game? There was no nothing
to let me know this before. Why am I doing this? Is that guy really a
bad guy? I literally stopped and pondered. I honestly thought this
was just going to be an old school hack'n'slash so I didn't really
think of there being a story.

Honestly, I don't know what the story
is and why Strider is doing what he's supposed to do. Later, there
are even cutscenes...why? I don't know why I'm doing what I'm doing?!
I'm assuming Strider is just assigned to a job and doesn't ask
questions because that's how it works. Plus, I just skip the
cutscenes any way(when it fucking lets me) because I'm so bored
playing the game, I don't care. Why is it so boring? Because it's
very monotonous and repetitive. Hack enemies. Beat boss. Repeat. Now,
this would be fine if the game was just focusing on going from point
A to point B, but no, it attempts to pull a Metroidvania style map
system, key word TRIES. You know what made Super Metroid great at
this style? The player's interest in the game. The fact that you had
a burning passion to discover secrets and the glory of exploration.
In Strider, you don't have bad ass guns to use, just an arm sword.
The settings are very bland and dreary, the music is awful, so you
don't really feel involved with the environment. Instead, it seems
they try to force a shitty story down your throat.

Very poor dialogue
and uninteresting characters. Like, you fight 4 goddesses of wind
(North, South, East, West), ok, does wind direction have something to
do with the game? I don't think so. The game does a poor job of
sucking the player in and just assumes, at least, I feel, assumes
that the only people that play this game are hack'n'slashers that
just want to burn through the game as fast as possible. I don't
really feel like the game was completed during its production. The
lack of any background at the beginning of the game turning which
then turns into several story and dialogue points feels just out of
place. As if the game didn't know what it wanted to be.

The gameplay isn't too great. If you're
attacking with Strider normally, or using any of the face buttons on
the controller (A,B,Y,X) it's responsive. But Strider gains these
abilities to use his Options(the bird, panther, etc) and here's where
it gets stupid. You have to HOLD LB and then press a face button. You
can't just easily tap LB+whatever button at the same time. No. You
have to hold it for at least 1 second. At first, I thought something
was wrong with my controller. But no, you have to hold it. And why?
Why would I have to do that? I have 4 buttons on the front and 4
buttons on top. That's 8 buttons. In fact, the Y button is useless.
Let me explain, X is basic attack, Y is a pop up attack, B throws
kunais, and A is used to jump. Why is the Y button useless? Because
you can perform the same attack by htting up and X. I mean, why does
it have to be so difficult to use Options? I thought one of Strider's
bonuses what his speed. I mean, he's a fucking ninja/assassin/weapons
expert....guy. Why do I have to hold a button down? Strider has 4
options. Ok, why can't all 4 shoulder buttons each be an option? Can
we just utilize the whole controller, please? And I don't care if you
can customize it in Settings(I don't think you can). It's stupid that
I would have to do that. It's so annoying to activaite Options, that
I don't ever use them because I forget they're there, just like
playing this game. I forget why I'm fucking playing it.

Then the game tries to make it Metroid
Prime like where you have 4 different blade types(Standard, Plasma,
Freeze and Magnet). Some enemies can only be hit by certain blade types. This is just bullshit. It's a simple gimick to just make the
game seem longer. I don't recall using different blade types in MvC.
Why would this have to exist? Look, game, either be a simple 2D
hack'n'slash and focus your budget on GFX and make it look cool when
I kill shit or be a Metroidvania game, meaning, you have to put work
into the levels so it doesn't look like I'm traveling through a grey,
industrial future like in 1984. Seriously, the settings and
background are SO BORING. I just want the game to end so I never have
to play it again. Which leads to my final complaint: weird ass
difficulty spike.

Seriously, this game is pretty easy as
you play through it. But I'm at the end of the game going up this
elevator and it's just hard as shit. You just take on wave after wave
of bad guys and I can't get passed it. Some guys shoots purple lasers
I can't reflect that just drains my health, then I have to fight
flying robots I can't reach that shoot heat seeking bombs at me, and
then fight two giant robot crabs that launch freeze grenades and just
hold me there until I'm dead. What the FUCK?! Why did it get so hard
all of a sudden? At this point, am I supposed to be mastered in all
of Strider's stupid tools that I can deal with a brutal onslaught
like this? I'm sorry, the game is so dull I didn't give two fucks to
probably learn how to play it correctly. I'm surprised I stuck it out
this long. I may not even keep playing, I don't think it's worth it.
The only ray of sunshine out of this is that I got super discounted
on the Steam sale. Are all the other games like this? If so, I might
just avoid them and remember Strider for being bad ass in MvC.

I mean, what the fuck, Capcom? No
wonder there's talks of your company being bought, you can't publish
anything decent any more unless it's Street Fighter, and that's only
going to last for so long. But I guess I can't really expect too much
out of Double Helix Games. As far as I can tell, the only successful
game they've made is the new Killer Instinct. Their other titles
include Silent Hill: Homecoming, some GI Joe game and Battleship.
What the...BATTLESHIP?! Like the MOVIE Battleship?! (checks
Wikipedia) Oh, fuck, it is the movie?! Jesus Christ, why?! Why do the
assholes that made a shitty game based on a shitty movie get to make
a fucking Strider game?! God damn it, and god damn you, Capcom!

I
guess I should have known that Strider was going to be a let down.
Did anyone see the latest PSN trailer for their free games this
month? Strider is one of them. Look at this promo and tell me this is
not the WORST promo for a fucking game:

Seriously,
if you want to play Strider, I wouldn't pay full price for it. Get it
for free on PSN or only if it is discounted. I'm super disappointed
and this game does not speak well for the character.

I had a feeling this game was going to be/feel rushed. It seemed like the dev team was more concerned with getting big, beautiful graphics on the screen to capitalize off of an iconic gaming franchise. Great review.

Amazon Search

Archive

Contact Us

Email Subscription

Versus the World Productions

Versus the World Productions is a network of independent Shoutcasters, Podcasters, and Bloggers dedicated to all things gaming, technology, and all-around geek culture.

We provide a variety of content on a weekly basis, and our Shoutcast stream runs 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. We offer inexpensive podcasting solutions for individuals who want to create original content as well as hosting both audio and video feeds of some of the most unique content on the web.